


Home for the Heart

by ginnybean



Series: In Another World [10]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Vignettes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23256433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginnybean/pseuds/ginnybean
Summary: Sometimes things work out differently. Sometimes Adelaide falls in love with a gentle soul.
Relationships: Penny/Female Player (Stardew Valley)
Series: In Another World [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1436416
Comments: 1
Kudos: 49





	1. Chapter 1

**SUMMER YEAR 1**

Adelaide spotted the red-haired woman sitting under a tree. She was reading a book. She remembered that she would see her around here whenever she didn’t have to teach the children.

“Hi, Penny.” She planned on just walking by because she never liked it when someone bothered her when people interrupted her reading.

“Oh Adelaide, wait!”

She turned to see that Penny was walking towards her.

“I just wanted to ask you if you like reading.”

“I do, but with the farm I haven’t had a lot of free time to read.”

“Oh, that makes sense. We do have a really good library. It’s nice to have in such a small town.” She looked down at the book in her hands. “I really love getting lost in a book. I’ve never really been anywhere else. It helps me forget everything that is wrong here.”

Adelaide had no idea how to respond to that. Penny didn’t seem to notice. She was just staring at her book. She couldn’t see her eyes but the slope of her shoulder made her want to wrap her up and keep her safe.

“Do…what’s wrong with here?”

“Oh, no I don’t. It’s just…well, you know the bus broke down right?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s been like that for over two years now. Mom doesn’t have any other job so I just wish she would be able to drive again. When she’s driving she drinks less. Oh!” Penny’s eyes when wide when she noticed what she said. “Sorry, sometimes I get carried away.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Adelaide. It wasn’t like she really could say anything else. They defiantly weren’t close enough for her to ask anything more about it. She suppose she could work more on trying to get the bus fixed. It did cost a lot of gold but she figured since she didn’t really know where to start it was a good place as any to begin.

“What do you read?” asked Penny, hoping to completely change to subject.

“Sci-fi is nice. I do like a historical romance in certain moods. I like all getting all the romance without having to worry about real life consequences.”

“Yes, I understand that too. I’ve lived in this town all my life so I like to escape in a book.” She looked at Adelaide for a long moment. “I didn’t think someone who had lived in different places would want to too.”

She shrugged, “We all have things we want to get away from or maybe just enjoy an evening where everything goes right in the end.”

Penny tucked the book closer to her. “Yes, I get that.” Silence fell, it was borderline awkward.

“Well,” started Adelaide, “I don’t know if I will have much time but if you want we can read books together and talk about them later.”

“Really?” Penny looked so hopeful.

“It will take me a long time to get through one but I think it would be a good idea if I set aside some time for a calm activity.”

“Don’t worry about how long to would take you. I would just love to have someone to talk to about books. I tried with Elliott but he’s too busy writing his own to have much time to read anything new right now.”

“Okay, think of a short novel and we can read it, just nothing super sad.”

“I will find a good one.” Penny smiled at her. She couldn’t help be notice how it transformed her face. Before she looked like she wanted to just fade into the oak trees but now she was shining on her own.

“I look forward to it.”


	2. Chapter 2

**SPRING YEAR 2**

Adelaide wondered if she should start a cooking class for the people in Pelican Town. First, she had taught Harvey and now she was doing it for Penny too. Though she had to admit the situation couldn’t be more different. With Harvey, she was just helping out her good friend. Penny was more than a good friend, or at least she hoped she would be very soon.

The sun was low in the sky by the time she knocked on the trailer door. Penny opened it almost immediately. She was wearing a waist apron and her hair was up in a messy ponytail. However, she had missed a few strands and they brushed against her neck. Up until that point Adelaide had no idea that she would find it so appealing.

“Good, you’re here!” Penny stepped aside to let her in. “Mom’s not home so it’s just the two of us if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“What are we making?”

“It’s basically a root salad. I figured we could start small.”

“Good, idea. I tend to mess up most dishes.”

“That’s why I’m here. We can see what we need to focus on.

It didn’t even take fifteen minutes to figure out why Penny had so much trouble cooking. She seemed to think receipts were a suggestion.

“Penny, stop.”

“But I think it would work better like this.”

“Maybe but it’s always a good idea to do a receipt as instructed at least once. Not to sound pretentious, but before you can break the rules you have to know the rules.”

Penny wiped the back of her hand against her cheek. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you have to know why the rules, or in this case ingredients, are there before you try to change things. That way you know what can be changed or replaced without messing everything up.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” She reached out to pluck of the little bit of root that had stuck to her cheek. Penny’s eyelashes fluttered at the contact but she tried to not read anything into it. “Cooking takes time and practice. You can’t rush things.”

“Right, okay.” She turned back to the counter. “Let’s do it again. I promise to do just as you say.”

“Let’s start from the top.” 

It took longer than when she cooked by herself but at the end of the hour, they had made a passable Red Plate dish.

“Oh wow!” Penny’s eyes shone after her first bite. “This is actually good.”

Adelaide smiled. “See? Now you have a dish to make. Maybe after a few times you can think of add a different vegetable to see how it goes.”

Penny blushed and looked down, “Sorry, I did invite you to teach me and then I try to just do what I had always been doing.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She reached over to pat her shoulder. “I’m happy to help.”

“Good…” She looked up at her through her lashes. Adelaide worked very hard on not blushing. “Do you want to pick out a movie while I clean up?”

“I can help you.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re my guest and you helped me out today. The least I can do is clean up.”

“Sure, I’ll pick something out.” 

There wasn’t a very large section and she made sure to pick something she had seen before. If the last movie they had watched had been any indication she would find it hard to concentrate after Penny leaned against her partway through the movie.

The movie had barely started when Penny moved to rest against her. She shifted a little and tugged right into her side. Before she could fully process the movement she started to talk.

“Adelaide?” whispered Penny.

“Yeah?” she matched her tone.

“I don’t really want to watch a movie.” 

She really, really, really hoped that meant what she thought it meant. She shifted her arm to rest along Penny’s shoulders. “What do you want then?”

Penny’s mouth parted a little. Her eyes darted down to catch the movement so she wasn’t able to see when she smiled. “A kiss.”

“I can manage that.” Her free hand came to cup her pale cheek. Her thumb brushed against her lips once before leaning in to kiss her. She didn’t worry about closing the distance on her own. Penny had asked for a kiss so a kiss she would gladly give her. 

She kept it soft, just the sure press of lips. Later they could have more kisses; stronger, faster ones. For now, she wanted to simply enjoy the feeling of having Penny in her arms.


	3. Chapter 3

**AUTUMN YEAR 4**

Adelaide woke to small hands making patterns on her arms. She gave a happy hum before she pulled Penny close. It had been over a year but she still enjoyed waking up and having her soft curves press against hers. Even better was the sound of her giggle.

“It’s been a year already. Well, a year and a day,” whispered Penny. She placed a kiss against her collarbone.

“I remember. My lovely wife made me a delicious meal. I didn’t even have to slip anything to Jack.”

Penny bit the same spot she just kissed.

“Hey!”

“Don’t feed the dog table scraps.”

“That’s the whole point of a farm dog. Well, one of his many points.”

“Don’t do it while we are eating.”

She gave a dramatic sigh. “I married a tyrant.”

“That’s not what you said last night or early this morning. Or what you will say in oh….five minutes.”

“Yeah?” She reached down to tug her hips closer, slipping her leg between her wife’s. “What will I be saying?"

Penny didn’t answer, all her attention turned to her wife’s smooth neck.

It was nearly noon when they finally managed to get ready for the day. Adelaide had only done the bare minimum the day before so she had her work cut out for her today. At least the orchard had finally seemed to start to bear fruit. Soon they should be making a good profit there. Even though she worked till the sky was dark she didn’t feel exhausted when she entered the house at the end of the day.

Penny was sitting at the table and seemed to be waiting for her.

“Hey, babe.” She leaned down to kiss her cheek.

“Hi.” Penny's hand wrapped around her wrist when she pulled away. “I want to talk to you about something.”

“Okay.” She sat down. She shifted her wrist so that she held her wife’s hand. 

“It’s not just from today. I have been thinking about it for a while and I want to make sure it was what I really wanted before saying anything. Now it’s just something I want to talk about, we don’t have to do anything right away. Don’t feel pressured or anything. It will just be something to think about.”

“Babe, you’re talking in circles. What do you want to say?”

Penny looked at her, “I want babies, kids.”

“Now?”

“Yeah, we been together a year. Frankly, I was feeling like this for a while but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just cause of Jodi.”

“Penny, you could have told me even if it turned out to be a passing fancy.”

“But children are such a big thing. I didn’t want to get your, or my, hopes up”

“But we married. We face everything together.”

Penny nodded but didn’t any much else.

“I have thought about kids off and on too. If you are ready we can talk about it, I think I am ready to be a mom.”

Penny smiled. “I think so too.”

“Okay.” She kissed her. “Let’s set things in motion.”


	4. Chapter 4

**SPRING YEAR 9**

Adelaide marveled at the way her whole hand could almost spam across the back of her daughter. While she was the oldest of three they had all been born close enough together that she didn’t really remember her sisters being this small. Though Harvey had said Madeline was on the smaller side of four-month olds. The comment had made Penny worry but Harvey was quick to assure them that she was still in the healthy range. A baby this small was new to them. Their other two children had come to them at older ages.

She turned her attention to where Penny sat on the kiddie bed with their other two children. Calvin’s blond curls were already starting to spring back from his bath. She loved the way his brow furrowed in fierce concentration as he tried to read along with the bedtime story Penny was reading them. Hannah was tucked against her side and appeared to already be fast asleep. Adelaide's heart swelled to watch them all together. She couldn’t wait till Madeline would be able to join them. Madeline started to fuss so left the room before the noise distracted the other children. 

The weather had turned warm so she walked outside to swing on the pouch. As always Jack was at her feet as soon as he noticed them.

“She going to have you wrapped around her little finger even more than the others isn’t she.”

Jack only huffed before laying down. It wasn’t long until Penny joined her.

“How’s our littlest one doing?”

“She fussy but think she’s finally calm down.”

“That’s good.” Penny ran the back of her finger along their daughter’s soft dark hair before placing a kiss on her head. “I can’t believe that Calvin and Hannah were ever this small.”

“I’m sure they were at some point.”

“What I really can’t believe was that Calvin already existed when we had our talk.”

“It is very strange to think about.” She shifted and Penny seamlessly took Madeline from her.

“Do you know what I really can’t believe?” 

“Hmm?”

“I was so scared about loving them.”

“Like how strong it could be?”

“No, not that. I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to love them enough.”

“Oh honey…” She wrapped her arms around her wife and daughter.

“With my mom, I’m sure the only reason I love her is that she is my mother. I can’t hate her cause he gave birth to me. I was afraid….I don’t really know how to put it but I was afraid that I can’t be enough. Then I felt selfish for going through it anyway just cause I wanted children.”

Penny looked at her with eyes shining in her eyes. “But then Calvin came along. With his little curls and his big dark eyes. I can’t imagine loving anyone or anything more than I love them.” She looked back down at Madeline. “How could blood matter, how could I possibly love them more if they came from me.”

“You couldn’t. You are a wonderful mother and they can feel how much you love them.”

“How much _we_ love them.”

“Yes, we. It doesn’t matter where they came from, it never did. What matters is that they are here now and that they are ours.”

“Calvin, Hannah, and Madeline Vaughn, our family.”

Adelaide rested her head against Penny’s shoulder, in the setting sun they both gazed down at their daughter. She had Jack at her feet and her two older children tucked up safe and sound inside. Her time at Joja was a distant memory, so far from where she was now, she couldn’t believe it had ever been her life. She could have never imagined having this life when she was there. It simply wouldn’t have been possible. She had had to place all her trust in a letter and a promise about a far away valley to make this all come true.


End file.
